Training Cycle/Periodization Basics

• Training cycles are important for getting in shape and performing at your best for an event
• They alter boredom and repetitive abuse issues that arise from overtraining
• They allow you to build up to an event and to plan exercise around seasons and travel
• Learn the basics here to better understand for yourself what a proper coach is designing for you

3 Basic concepts exist in training cycles often referred to as periodization 

• The Macrocycle - Typically a year round plan designed to work backwards from a major event or year end goal - like a championship event or race
• The Mesocycle - A duration of 2-6 weeks, depending upon the sport, that is designed to help your body peak around a particular event - like that century ride you've planned next month
• The Microcycle - The smallest of the training cycles (a few days to a week) that is designed to focus on key aspects of your discipline - concentrating on some high intensity sprint work

Pat's note - I decided after 6 months of poorly planned self-coaching to enter the 2014 Etape du Tour.  The Etape is an amateur one day race performed on the toughest stage of that years' Tour de France. In this case it was climbing the Tormalet and Hautacam mountain climbs! I would be following up the Etape with my first full season of cyclocross racing in the fall. My newly enlisted coach Kris Auer took all of the above into consideration building a solid base of fitness before the Etape. After the race was some needed rest and recover then a  transition into intensity focused workouts to add speed and to carry my new found fitness into the cyclocross season.